Course Description: This course is an introduction to textual analysis with readings from Spanish and Spanish American literature and culture. The course will deal with basic genres: narrative, poetry, drama, and essay and will provide students with the opportunity to acquire the basic technical vocabulary of the Hispanic literary and cultural critic.

Course Description: This course focuses on improving writing in Spanish. In addition to addressing the mechanics of clear writing (syntax and the structure of paragraphs and arguments), there will also be a thorough review of the Spanish grammatical system, including such important areas as narration in the past (preterite and imperfect), sequence of tenses, the uses of the subjunctive and conditional modes, and the rules of accentuation.

Course Description: This course examines the Spanish language from its roots in spoken Latin to modernity. There will be emphasis on the close relationship between historical events and language change, and the role that literature plays in language standardization. Not open for credit to students who have completed course 115S.

Course Description: An introduction to the best 19th-20th-century Spanish short-stories with a strong theoretical component. The aim of the course is twofold: (1) to trace the historical evolution of the short story genres from Naturalism to Postmodernism (focusing on subject matter: rural vs. urban, marine adventure, religious, Biblical and philosophical stories, coming-of-age stories, police stories, erotic stories, animal stories, etc); and 2) to analyze its prominent modes and sub-genres (such as the allegory, the fantastic, magic-realism, metafiction, lyrical stories, herstories, microstories; testimonial, journalistic stories and anecdotes, among other). We will also establish connections with the development of the genre in the Spanish-speaking world.

Course Description: This course will enhance understanding between Anglos and Latinos by studying the birth and evolution of the so-called “Black Legend,” a 16th century myth that racialized Spaniards by representing them as uniquely brutal and avaricious people, characteristics attributed to their Muslim and Jewish roots, respectively. Spaniards were presented as an impure and barbarian race that mixed with Native Americans and other non-Europeans in the Americas, producing a thoroughly inferior people. In contrast, the English were depicted as a pure and civilized nation which brought progress to the New World and preserved its superiority by avoiding miscegenation. The “Black Legend,” which underpins the doctrine of “Manifest Destiny,” was used to justify the appropriation of territories by the United States during the Texas Revolt, the Mexican-American War, the California Gold-Rush and the Spanish-American War, and it still affects how Latinos are perceived and treated in this country today. The course will explore the presence of the “Black Legend” in contemporary American society through interviews and analysis of school textbooks.

Course Description: This is a survey course using one principal anthology to look as closely as possible at major authors and works of the nascent Spanish-American literature, from Columbus's Diary to modernism at the end of the 19th century. The goals of the course, in addition to acquainting majors and minors with significant milestones in the development of a new Spanish-language literature, include strengthening reading ability and sharpening critical skills. Literary terms and concepts introduced in Spanish 100 will be assumed for practical application.

Course Description: This course examines a series of late 20th and early 21st century Latin American short stories and novels that deal with cross-border issues, including migration, exile, travel, cosmopolitanism, and hybrid and mutli-cultural identities. While the U.S.-Mexico border will be touched upon, we will spend far more time examining instances of border-crossing within Latin America, as well as between Latin America and other areas of the globe, including Canada, Western Europe, and Africa. Class discussions and primary readings will in Spanish, with the exception of Dominican-American writer’s Junot Diáz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

Course Description: This course provides a general introduction to Latin American culture while presenting students with critical tools for analyzing a broad range of cultural texts, including short stories, poetry, essays, literary crónicas, political discourses, popular legends, films, paintings, popular music and testimonies. Sample cultural texts will be analyzed from different time periods—though emphasis will be placed on the post-1960s era—with an eye toward understanding their politics, aesthetics, ethics, and ideologies. This course will serve as a “gateway” course that seeks to equip students with the tools needed to succeed in more advanced upper division Spanish courses. Topics to be considered may include: colonialism, the “idea” of Latin America, cultural heterogeneity, identity formations, social movements, violence and dictatorship, globalization, and neoliberalism.

Course Description: In this course we will study the cinema of the Cuban Revolution. We will begin by contextualizing the relationship between politics and arts in Cuba from 1959 to the present and outlining the special role cinema has played in that debate among Cuban leftists. This class will have two basic orientations: (1) the discussion of the social subtext of some of the Cuban movies and documentaries of that period; and (2) the analysis of the techniques used in some of those works. Although we will be more content-oriented in our analysis, we will also deal with the importance of some of the outstanding Cuban filmmakers like Gutierrez Alea, Tabio, and many others; the influence of foreign filmmakers like Fellini and especially Brecht, as well as cinematographic movements like the French New Wave, Italian neo-realism, and the Brazilian Cinema Novo. Moreover, we will study the common practice in Cuban cinema of the mixing of fiction and documentary, as well as the so-called “imperfect cinema.” We will also watch and analyze well-known, “classical” Cuban films like Memories of Underdevelopment, Portrait of Teresa,Strawberry and Chocolate, Wait List, Life is to Whistle, and others.

Grading system: This will be a project course, which means that a good deal of the student individual grade will rest on a final paper (8+ double-spaced pages) about a specific film or films not watched for the class, but related with the main topic of the course. This paper will be 60% of the grade. The other 35% will be from weekly quizzes and film reviews about the films and other materials discussed in class. Participation will be 5% of the grade.

Movie reviews: Starting in the second week, every week the students will write a 2-3 page critical review of the movie of the week.

Course Description: An interdisciplinary survey of Chicano culture. Topics include literature, art, folklore, oral tradition, music, politics, as well as “everyday” cultural manifestations. The course is conducted in Spanish. This is a survey of the culture of the Mexican people from the pre-Hispanic period to the present. Pre-Hispanic concepts, myths, symbols, and legends present in Chicano culture are traced to their Mexican origins. The concept of Fifth Sun, Luis Valdez’s "Pensamiento Serpentino", the myths of Quetzalcoatl and Aztlán, and the Aztec homeland are examined, as well as the Mesoamerican concept of self and time. The period of conquest of Mexico by Spain is examined, both as presented by historians and interpreted by Octavio Paz in his book, El laberinto de la soleded. The turmoil of the first half of the 19th century in Mexico and implications of the annexation of the southwest to the U.S. by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 are studied. Also examined are the origins of the stereotypes of the Mexican/Chicano found in American society, such as the pocho, the pachuco, and the cholo. The literary and artistic expressions of the Chicano Movement of the past twenty-five years are also analyzed as part of this course.

The course format consists of lectures by the instructor, occasional guest speakers, screening of a few films and class discussions based on the assigned readings. A term paper is a course requirement. This research paper should be on a topic illustrating an aspect of Chicano culture. Students are required to attend a one-hour discussion session every week.